This invention relates to mechanism that is designed to steer or maneuver one or more small high energy density outputs across a surface to evenly affect the surface.
As one skilled in this art will appreciate there are sundry mechanisms that are commercially available that are intended to xe2x80x9cworkxe2x80x9d the surface of a substrate, such as to remove paint, coatings, and oxides, or to affect the material or change its mechanical characteristics such as peening, heating, annealing, tempering or hard surfacing and the like. These mechanisms typically utilize mediums for these purposes such as waterjets (with or without abrasives or additives), fluid jets (with or without abrasives or additives), lasers, white light, or other mediums. This invention contemplates mechanism for providing an oscillating pattern of the medium being utilized that is applied to the surface of the item intended to be targeted.
High energy density output mechanisms of the waterjet nozzle types that are utilized for removing coatings, paints and the like from substrates, for example, which are currently in practice are exemplified by the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,517 granted to Knudson et al on Jun. 6, 1995 entitled xe2x80x9cHigh Pressure Waterjet Nozzlexe2x80x9d describes a prior art waterjet system that is typically employed to remove for example the coatings applied to aircraft components, space vehicles used in outer space missions and the like. The high power waterjet nozzle of the type depicted in this patent includes mechanism for rotating a nozzle and when translated across a surface creates an array of jet streams discharging from orifices in a nozzle that defines a swath that is intended to uniformly strip the coating from the substrate. In particular an array of radially extended orifices located in the nozzle are dimensioned and located to define the amount of energy of the jet that provides the uniform stripping without incurring damage to the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,293 granted to Meredith et al on Nov. 26, 1996 entitled xe2x80x9cFull Recovery Stripping Systemxe2x80x9d discloses another high pressure waterjet nozzle capable of use for stripping coatings, paint and the like from substrates or components. The nozzle in the structure depicted in this patent includes radially spaced orifices that communicate with a source of high pressure water and the end effector supporting the nozzle is gimbal mounted to provide the desired motion of the nozzle and hence, the swath of highly energized jet stream developed by the nozzle.
High energy density output mechanism for xe2x80x9cworkingxe2x80x9d the surface of a substrate by peening is disclosed in the following patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,713 granted to Butler et al on Jul. 14, 1998 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod And Apparatus For Ultra High Pressure Water Jet Peeningxe2x80x9d discloses a nozzle with a single orifice that serves to discharge ultrahigh velocity waterjet that is utilized for peening the outer surface of an object so as to alter the properties of the material by localized compression and altering the crystal structure.
The first two identified patents in the immediate above paragraphs are owned by United Technologies Corporation by virtue of a direct assignment thereto or by ownership of the subsidiary noted directly in the patent. The latter patent is assigned to Waterjet Technology, Inc. which has no affiliation with the assignee of the present patent application. All of these patents are incorporated herein by reference and details to waterjet technology may be referred to these documents for additional information.
While this invention can be utilized in any of the applications described in the above paragraphs, the preferred embodiment of this invention relates to the technology that deals with high pressure and high velocity fluid flow that is utilized to remove paint or coatings from the substrate and is directly concerned with the pattern of the jetstream directed to the target. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, the heretofore waterjet nozzles are either fixed or movable in a rotational direction. The problem with these types of nozzles is that they have the propensity of cutting into or scaring the substrate unevenly and/or are less efficient than the invention to be described hereinbelow.
Rather than rotating the nozzle, this invention provides a shaking motion to the nozzle that could be linear in one or more directions, thus, allowing any combination of two dimensional motions from straight lines to circles to any Lissajous figure pattern. In accordance with this invention, the shake motion can be angular in one or more directions to achieve the same motion on the work surface or a combination of linear and angular motions.
The motion provided by the structure of this invention allows a much larger angular deviation from the normal to the surface than a rotating waterjet. The shaking motion eliminates the high pressure water swivel which is a relatively complicated structure requiring higher cost and requires higher maintenance. While the working pattern of rotated nozzles are always round, the pattern of the present invention could be square which simplifies the cleanup problem and reduces the over lap at the end of the process positions. The working head of the present invention lends itself to be smaller than the heretofore known rotating heads which is abundantly important in installations that utilize a vacuum recovery system of the type described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,293, supra.
An object of this invention is to provide improved mechanism which steers or maneuvers one or more high energy density outputs as they are translated across a surface.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a waterjet system that provides a shaking motion to the nozzle rather than a rotational motion.
A feature of this invention is to mount the nozzle to the end of the non-rotating water transfer tube which is mounted in a housing that is pulley connected to a drive motor for rotating a cylindrical mass (rotating tube) which is offset from the centerline non-rotating eccentric tube. A pivot supports the housing at a judicious location and affects the motion of the non-rotating nozzle which in the present configuration moves in an oscillating fashion which is a circular motion. The assembly provides an angular motion limited by opposing bumpers to deform the circular motion of the nozzle.
A further feature of this invention is to provide structure which is characterized as easy to manufacture, assemble, operate and maintain, that is capable of being steered or maneuvered yet capable of utilizing several different mediums that guide small high energy density outputs in a pattern that when translated across a surface will evenly affect the surface.
The foregoing and other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings.